Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 14.djvu/24



16 LIEUTENANT HOWISON REPORT ON OREGON, 1846

are prevalent, and it is during their continuance the greatest degree of cold is felt; the river is often frozen over in. the neighborhood of Fort Vancouver. Even in Baker's bay, the schooner we were on board of was in January belted around with ice at the water's edge, fully eighteen inches thick; this was, however, considered by the old residents an unusual and extraordinary spell of cold weather.

Captain Wilkes's survey, in 1841, of the mouth of the Co- lumbia, however accurately it may have been done, is, I am sorry to say, at present only calculated to mislead the navigator ; this I affirm without any intention to reproach himself or his assistants with incapacity or neglect ; five years' time has doubt- less put an entirely new face upon the portrait of the sands hereabouts; nor has the change beeri altogether sudden, for I ascertained from those who had passed and sounded among the sands at short intervals since the date of the survey, that these changes have been gradually and steadily progressing. This chart delineates two fine open channels, broad and with reg- ular outlines ; but at this mome'nt the mouth .of the southern channel is nearly closed up, not having at low water more than two fathoms in it, while the old or northern one is ob- structed by a spit from the wreck of the Peacock to the east- ward ; so that on the line of six fathoms laid down on the chart, only six feet can now be found. Many other chariges equally important have taken place within the bar, which is needless to allude to here. The constant alterations which this bar, in common with most others, is undergoing, go to prove the necessity of frequent surveys and the establishment of resi- dent pilots, who can be constantly exploring the channel, and keep pace with the shifting of sands, and the consequent change in the direction of the tides.

The following sailing directions will at this time carry a vessel safely into Baker's bay ; but how far they may be suit- able a year hence is altogether doubtful. There has been no heavy freshet in the Columbia for the last two summers, and the elongated and narrow spits which now jut out from the sands